Yeah, about 10-12 years ago, half the games on my PC used OpenGL, now Rage will be the only one.

The point is, it doesn't require an OS upgrade, to answer your question why it's on XP. The last game that use OpenGL was ET: Quake Wars. idsoftware decided to stick with OpenGL and good for them because it's not limited to Windows versions.

Steamworks has a great advantage over other games that are on Steam. The possibility to get it anywhere including retail and add it to your Steam library. That's the perfect combination.

Origin offers that service as well, even per default for all games so far, that's great.

But your comparison is flawed because Origin doesn't offer the same broad game selection with titles from different publishers and developers. If RAGE would be on Steam but not on Origin because it's based on Steamworks, then your comparison would be valid.

Origin sell EA developed and published titles only, that's why, it's not like Steam where they sell any game.

Not a lame flame, just a rant against trolls that seem to forget how bad Steam was when it was first released.

Origin is in beta....wind your neck in slaWter, Steam is not the be all and end all....besides it didn't stop you getting iracing through another distributor...hypocrite

Besides if most major companies do what EA have done then steam wont last forever. Ea can have there own distributor, if Activision did the same and a few other top devs/producers and made all there games distributable only from there own services Steam would crumble faster than you could say "valve sucks"....

How is it a "glorified download" client? It works like Steam. You can play games in it, you can add your EA games to it, you chat, you can join games with other people from it, you can buy the game your friend has with it.

I really dont see the problem with Origin. Apart from a few people suggesting that they like to have all DD in one place i feel as there is no valid debate here.

I have a GFWL account, Steam account, WoW account and an Origin account with games on them all...when i browse to my 'games' folder each and every game from each distributor is there...all in one place. I dont care for the silly things such as in game chat interface and screenshot taker and crappy fps readouts that are usually inaccurate nor am i interested in 'chatting' on these interfaces.

Usually the prices of games on these DD acounts are usually higher than retail and so if i have an option i will always mail order my games and usually save myself 10-15 quid in doing so. THIS is my only gripe with DD services.

I play a game on Steam...I play a game on Origin... Is there a difference to me when im playing these games on what DD account i have used to acquire the game? No there isnt. Also Steam Cloud can be a huge fail at times as i have personally witnessed lost saves and game resets because of this, personally i like all my data being stored locally.

EA have stood up and said "hold on, why are steam making soo much money off our games? Maybe we should distribute them ourselves with an improved EA downloader". Good on them i say, Steam is becoming overpriced and greedy for AAA titles and at the end of the day you are downloading data...No production cost here for DVD's, manuals and boxes yet they still charge extortionate prices.

Retailers have much bigger overheads yet Steam sell games at higher prices just for the digital game. If I see a game at Tesco, I by it because I know it will be about £5-£10 cheaper than Stream and that's a retail box.

And they went ahead and made that happen, while pricing the games exactly the same as on Steam. The only difference is, they now get all the money. Talk about greedy....

Steam is not expensive at all, at least here in Switzerland. It actually forced retailers to lower their prices for PC games by about 25%!

But BF3 is their game not steams, why should steam make money off it just because it can offer a DD. All EA have done is got rid of the middle man which is all steam will ever be cept of course for the Valve exclusives. This is why Steam have steamworks and cloud, yes you get option to run 'some' games through steamworks but there are also a few that is compulsary to use steamworks. MW2 and blops spring to mind.

I hope theres a lot more devs catch on to this and at last Steam can have some serious competition with the PC market. Thats a good thing for the users.

Sure it would be good. Without stupid exclusive deals though. That's what is so annoying for gamers these days. Not just related to this topic but in general. Platform X will get a game or a DLC earlier because someone payed the devs some money. Stuff like that is not good for gaming.
Same goes for this BF3 Origin deal. Let the biggest competitor sell the game as well but fight it with a lower price (because there is no middle man on your DD platform) and you'll still get a lot of customers because the price is lower but at least all gamers have access to it the way they want/prefer.

So how can I get Valve games on Origin then? Just Cause 2 is exclusive Steam, since you need the Steam client to play it and that's not even a Valve game. Battlefield has always had EA behind it so there is a big difference.

Exclusives are a way to make big money and I'm sure Epic games do well with Gears of War being Xbox360 exclusive.